


Days Past and Days Future

by facetofcathy



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: 1000-3000 words, Episode Related, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-26
Updated: 2008-08-26
Packaged: 2017-10-03 05:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/facetofcathy/pseuds/facetofcathy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tag to episode 5.06 The Shrine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Days Past and Days Future

Day 11

"John, John!"

Ronon stood up before he was fully awake, not that he'd been fully asleep exactly. He waited silently, listening to the anguished cries, waiting for the door to open. It took longer this night, longer for Rodney to find the door and run into the hallway.

"John, I need John. Where is he?"

Ronon strode towards Rodney, making lots of noise, letting his feet slap against the floor, letting his clothing rustle. Rodney turned, startlement and fear writ plain on his face. He narrowed his eyes in confusion and then the familiar, big, happy smile wiped everything else away. "Ronon, Ronon Dex." Rodney reached out towards him.

"Yeah, Rodney, it's me." He took Rodney's hand as Rodney came towards him eagerly, his smile fading a little. He seemed so small now, without the blazing light of his old self filling the space around him.

"John, I can't find John. I need John," he said it like a chant.

"Yeah, I know. Come on, I know where he is." Ronon tugged a little on Rodney's hand and he smiled again and happily followed Ronon down the corridor. A patrol passed, two men Ronon knew well, and their gazes flicked to Rodney's hand held firmly in his own. He quelled them with a look, and he saw the nascent salute forming before he strode past them, tugging along a docile Rodney.

Ronon rapped lightly on John's door, and it slid open immediately. John was dressed for bed, but the covers on the bed behind him had never been pulled back, and a book lay on the floor beside the bed.

"John!" Rodney let go of Ronon's hand and surged past him.

John caught him by the arms and held on.

"Ronon found me and then he found you. He's good at that," Rodney said and smiled at them both.

John looked up at Ronon for a long moment. He was drawn and pinched looking, exhausted like they all were. Ronon had nothing to offer him, no respite. "Thanks buddy," John said quietly.

"Yeah, no problem." Ronon left them and headed off for an early run rather than trying for a few hours of sleep.

  
Day 1 (After)

Ronon sat looking out at the water, watching the lights of the city sparkling on the water. The wind was cold and he hadn't brought his coat. He'd come straight to the pier from the Infirmary, straight from the news that McKay was going to recover. Steps sounded quietly against the metal decking and Ronon grinned. "Trust you to find me."

"Yes," Teyla said and came forward to sit beside him. She had had the sense to put her coat on before she came outside.

The fur at the cuffs glinted silver in the city lights and Ronon impulsively reached out to run his fingers along its softness. She had a familiar bottle in her hand and Ronon grinned. "Ruus wine. Haven't seen that in a while."

"Halling sent it to me. He will not say where he got it from; I believe he had a stash somewhere he wishes to keep secret. I thought tonight would be a good night to share it."

"A very good night." Ronon accepted the bottle from her and swallowed a healthy measure. It burned going down, and Ronon relished the sensation. He passed the bottle back and Teyla took a more modest sip. They passed the bottle back and forth and watched the lights on the water and the slow progress of the red moon across the sky. "We have to go back, clear the Wraith off that planet," Ronon said.

"We have to clear many Wraith from many planets, but yes you are correct. We will go back to Talus."

"They won't do anything." Ronon nodded to the city at their backs. "They won't think it's worth it."

Teyla didn't disagree.

"We'll need medical equipment, doctors, a hospital and people to work there. We'll need to build a whole village there." Ronon took a long drink and set the bottle down on the metal pier that didn't grow cold like metal should.

"There are places we can get all those things. Hoff perhaps, if any equipment remains there that is still usable."

"Sateda," Ronon said quietly.

"Yes, perhaps there as well. I think also the Genii might supply the doctors. I recall seeing people among them suffering from the Second Childhood long ago when I believed their illusion that they were simple farmers. We will add it to the list, Ronon and we will go back."

"We'll need _them_ to train the doctors."

"Jennifer will help," Teyla said with calm certainty.

"You better talk to her about it."

Teyla looked at him in confusion.

"She's not too fond of me anymore."

"But you were correct and your idea saved Rodney, surely she is not still angry with you."

"I don't thing me being right helps exactly. She's a bit too much like McKay for that to help any." Ronon smiled a little bitterly.

"Well it is good to have Rodney back the way he was meant to be. When he was first ill he reminded me of Rod, it was most unsettling."

Ronon grinned and took another drink. He didn't disagree.

  
Day 15

A blast of warm city air hit Ronon's back when the door to the balcony opened. Teyla's hand was on the cold flesh of his arm, hot against his skin. He'd been outside for a while then, long enough to get cold.

"The gate just activated," she said to him, voice low and urgent. "Jeannie is here."

"Yeah." Ronon watched the waves cresting against the distant pier.

"You should tell her about the shrine. Tell her about your grandfather. They might heed her, where they will not heed us."

"Me? You should talk to her; I'm no good at explaining things."

"I will speak to her, but you have been there, Ronon. You can convince her, because you know the stories are true. We will wait, when she has seen him, tell her. Win her to our side."

"So it's a fight?"

Teyla didn't quite roll her eyes at him. "Yes, of course it is. A fight we will win." Teyla tugged at his arm and he turned and followed her back into the warmth of the city.

  
Day 1 (After)

Rodney watched Jennifer. She didn't look the confident doctor anymore, now that they were alone. She looked tired and very young and not a little overwhelmed, sitting beside his bed staring down at her clasped hands.

"I was scared," Jennifer said, like it was a confession he would be surprised by.

"On the mission?"

"Mission, is that what that was," she snorted in derision. "I call it non-stop terror, relieved only by the joy of performing surgery in the most horrific conditions imaginable."

"Oh come on, I can imagine much more horrific conditions than that." Rodney stopped himself from letting his imagination run. When he'd heard how many Wraith were on the planet, he'd been terrified all over again.

Jennifer looked up at him finally and smiled weakly, shaking her head.

"And besides," Rodney continued, "fear is a perfectly rational response to the conditions you faced. You have to remember not to measure yourself against Sheppard and Ronon and Teyla in a situation like that - they're not reliable indicators of a normal human response."

"What about you?" Jennifer was looking him in the eye again.

"What about me?"

"How do you do it? Go out there and face all that danger and fear."

"Gibbering in terror most of the time." Rodney tried a smile.

Jennifer just frowned a little harder. "I don't think that's true."

"Look, you do what you have to do. Just like you did with the Tool Time surgery. Hey, do you realize you're now the Pegasus Galaxy's foremost expert on trepanation?"

"Oh sure, trust you to make that joke." Jennifer laughed and almost sounded happy.

Rodney smiled again and she smiled back this time. Of course he could never leave well enough alone. "You know, I mean I know you do, but - you know I'm never going to be like I was when I was first sick. You know I can't be that guy."

"What guy is that?"

Rodney made a pained expression. "The guy who's upbeat and cheerful and fun."

"That guy." Jennifer looked down at her clasped hands again. "I think you're just fine the way you are." She said it like she meant it; at least he thought she did.

  
Day 17

Sheppard burst out of the isolation room and Ronon stepped forward from the wall. He'd been waiting for Sheppard this time, waiting for him to run when it got to be too much. Ronon caught him by the arm and John struggled weakly to pull away. Ronon held on, held on even though there was no one he could lead John to, to quiet his mind.

"Ronon, I need to go," John said.

"You can't. He'll start screaming for you in a minute."

"I know, I just can't anymore. I can't."

"You have to."

John tried to shove Ronon away, but he just held on. John leaned back against the wall and dropped his head down. A movement ripped Ronon's attention from John. Woolsey was approaching. He opened his mouth to speak but Ronon held up a hand and tried to sound cool and calm. "Give us a minute. Mr. Woolsey - sir, please."

Woolsey frowned but nodded. "Alright then. I'll just go speak to Dr. Keller again."

Ronon watched him leave, hoping he was going to pressure Keller to let them take Rodney to Talus.

"You called him sir," John said.

"Yeah, changed my mind about him. He's not intimidated by me, got right up in my face when we were trying to explain about the shrine. He stood up to those replicators too. I think he'll let us take Rodney even if Keller doesn't agree."

"Yeah maybe, but that's pretty much a hollow victory."

"Only one we're gonna get." Ronon tugged on John's arm until he levered himself off the wall and tipped forward against Ronon's chest. Ronon wrapped his arms tight around John, tight enough to bruise; he made sure John would still feel the embrace even after he went back into the isolation room.

  
Day 1 (After)

John stood in the middle of his quarters. He really should sleep. He could sleep now, no worries about interruptions anymore. Rodney had come to his room every night for days, and John had been at the end of his rope, exhausted and strung out on worry and frustration. Keller had eventually put Rodney first into the Infirmary and then into the horror of the glass walled isolation room, and that was worse.

John had tried to see Rodney now that he was recovering. He'd hovered in the doorway and watched Jeannie and Jennifer fuss around him. Rodney had caught his eye and he'd mouthed the word tomorrow at him, and Rodney had looked like he understood. He really should just go to sleep.

John stood outside Ronon's door looking at the blank life signs detector. He really should just go back to his own quarters and sleep. Ronon could be anywhere, and he didn't wear his radio if he didn't feel like it. John turned around and tucked himself into an alcove between the wall and one of the bubbling columns of water. He had good sightlines on the door and the corridor, so he hunkered down in his corner to wait. He decided he'd call it fifty points if he saw Ronon first and a hundred points if Ronon got all the way to his door without noticing John.

Something kicked his foot. John jerked awake and looked up at Ronon looming over him. He had his arms crossed and he was flashing his sly grin. "I should take you out for another round of stealth training, Sheppard."

"Am I crazy if that actually sounds like fun?" John held out his hand.

Ronon just raised a brow so John snapped his fingers impatiently and smirked. Ronon laughed quietly and hauled him to his feet and then failed to let go.

"I really should sleep," John said.

"You just were."

"I was thinking a bed would be good."

"Come on," Ronon tugged John towards his quarters, and John followed, his hand still held in Ronon's firm grip.


End file.
